“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(The 32nd envelope experiment was held during the session. The object was a black and white Polaroid photo, taken of myself by a coworker in September 1960, at my desk at the Artistic Card Co. in Elmira. The older individual in the left background of the photo, Ezra Havens, figures in the envelope data, also. The friend who took the photo caught me by surprise during a lunch hour; hence my position in the act of stretching, and the startled expression.

(I placed the photo between the usual two pieces of Bristol and then sealed it in the usual double envelope. This photo had laid in my files for several years. Jane had seen it a long time ago, I knew, but certainly not recently. Since it was a photo of me I felt it would have an emotional attraction for her.

(“A connection with four people,” I felt to be a vague reference to others I worked with at Artistic Card Co., when the photo was taken in 1960. Not specific enough.

(“And with something circular.” to me represented the round bottle of ink showing in the photo on the table beside my drawing board, and to the standard color mixing tray on the drawing board itself; this contains four circular wells.

(“And here also with an unknown element.” referred, in my opinion, to the death of Ezra Havens, shown in the background of the photo. Ezra died of a heart attack in September 1964. Jane of course knew of Ezra’s death although she had never met him; she agreed with me that “an unknown element.” could be a reference to death.

(“I do not know to what this refers, but a twist, or something twisted.” referred I thought to myself, caught in the act of stretching in the envelope photo.

(“A four.” Jane said this was a reference to the 4 in 42, on the back of the photo in the upper left corner.

(“A five six.” Note that Jane, or Seth, pronounced these numbers as five six, rather than fifty-six. Nevertheless I felt five six referred to the age of Ezra Havens when the photo was taken in 1960. As stated, Ezra died in 1964. Inquiring at the plant the day after this session, I learned that he had been 60 when he died; this of course made him 56 in 1960. Ezra had a history of heart trouble and his death from this was not unexpected.

(“A lifting up. Something rising.” Both of us thought this a clear reference to the action of my stretching arms in the envelope photo.

(“Ruburt’s impression of a table...and rounded objects and colored.” In the photo I am sitting at a drawing table. Rounded objects and colored I thought another reference to “something circular.” listed above. The table data brings up another instance of the fine discrimination necessary to Jane in giving such experimental data. She said she had an impression of a table while speaking for Seth; not only this, but of a white table. In the envelope photo it can be clearly seen that my drawing table is covered with white paper, for cleanliness while working. This is still my habit.

(“Two people coming upstairs. Perhaps your stairs.” No one came up the stairs of our apartment house while this data was being given. The art room at Artistic, where the envelope photo was taken, is located on the second floor. Since the photo was taken at noon it is possible people were using the stairs at the end of the hall. But the impression is too vague.

(Remember, the envelope photo was taken in 1960.)

(Note that Seth’s idea of our time is quite different from our own at times. The photo was taken in 1960, and Erza died in 1964; we do not call a four-year wait imminent. At various times Seth has told us his idea of time may not coincide with ours. Without going into details I recall a prediction of his that was to materialize “soon.” It did materialize, but six months later.

(This involved my ink bottle, the mixing tray for color on my desk in the photo, etc.